http://www.forumer.com/ is a free website to host forums on, and after doing so you can customize it to fit the style of a roleplaying forum you like.
There are a lot of different ways and places to roleplay. 1) Forum-Based roleplaying, aka post-by-post or play-by-play roleplaying. Involves posting messages on a forum back and forth to develop characters through action and dialogue. Examples of forum software include InvisionPowerBoard and its other free boards, such as Zetaboards and Invisionfree. vBulletin, SMF, Proboards, phpBB, myBB and Yuku are other examples. However, changes to Proboards' recent policies make it an unsuitable place for roleplaying. 2) Text-based MU*'s, including MUDs, MUCKs and MUSHes. A MUD is a Multi User Dungeon, for example. I don't know much about these! 3) Chat-based roleplaying. This may be done over any instant messenger, such as AIM, Y!M, MSN, etc. Other options are ICQ, IRC or a chat client. You roleplay with another partner or multiple partners via the chat client. 4) Email-based roleplaying. You trade emails and roleplay back and forth with replies. Similar to forum-based roleplaying. These usually have a group, such as a Yahoo or Google group with information and contacts. I have personally roleplayed forum and chat, usually with chat supporting my forum roleplaying.
Start with a domain, then setup a forums content management system and go from there.
Free Forum was created on 2004-01-13.
It depends on the forum in question. Most forums are free, though.
Go to the boards and it's under roleplaying.
RAKEZ Free Zone Company Setup
There's a heavily filtered roleplaying forum on moshimonsters.com. Some kids roleplay on sites like Animal Jam and Toontown, but they aren't as active. There's a good roleplay forum on kidzworld.com.
There are many free forum scripts. The most popular one by far is phpBB. MyBB is also free and similar to vbulletin. Vanilla is a popular light weight forum.
The Metabarons Roleplaying Game happened in 2001.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game happened in 2009-08.
DC Universe Roleplaying Game happened in 1999.
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game happened in 2002.